Hard fought protections in new Banking Code better for consumers
The new Banking Code of Practice came into force on Friday the culmination of years of work to strengthen consumer protections said Stephanie Tonkin, CEO Consumer Action Law Centre.
The Hayne Royal Commission exposed the massive harms that unregulated banking activity and other poor banking practices can lead to for ordinary Australians, but the fight to keep and enhance these consumer protections was a drawn out process.
“Industry Codes of Practice are an incredibly important part of the regulatory framework for consumers,” Ms Tonkin said.
“They’re the plain language source that many frontline workers or consumers go to understand their rights in a highly complex legal environment.”
Consumer Action Law Centre led several submissions over 3 years to ensure the rights and usefulness of the Banking Code are preserved.
“There is a concerning push in a number of industries including financial services toward reducing some meaningful reporting and taking out so called “duplication” in Codes. This misses the point that Codes are generally the only documents that are readily accessible to consumers,” she said.
“With the Australian Securities and Investment Commission intervention we helped to prevent removal of key provisions from the Code on the required standard of bankers and reporting to the Banking Code Compliance Committee, and there are some excellent new protections re interpreters and guarantors.
“I’m happy with where the Code landed, and I congratulate the Australian Banking Association (ABA) for getting it to this place, but it was at times an uphill battle to keep a number of protections in there,” she said.
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Media contact: Mark Pearce mark@consumeraction.org.au Tel: 0413 299 567
